Rapidshare Sings Taps
Read their news. The new Rapidshare pricing model would mean that casual, non-profit bloggers (like myself) carry a business account, which they will charge daily for. Even if I did turn features on and off (to save money), it's still an accounting nightmare. This is so sad. Rapidshare was the pioneer for simple, no ad-hassle, dependable file hosting.
Even worse is the fact that so many of the files posted on the internet are linked to Rapidshare. That's a HUGE back catalog that's in jeopardy. They are not grandfathering in old agreements if your subscription is still current. Too bad. Your getting their "new currency". And this is what happens after Rapidshare wins 2 US court cases?
3 comments :
In a way I welcome this news. I've always despised Rapidshare's dominance of the file hosting market. It seems ironic that so many pirates would pay to host illegal files. I know many people use it for legitimate purposes, but the vast majority of the files on rapidshare are uploaded by pirates. I've always held the opinion that there are much better services out there that are either free or cheaper, and if rapidshare were to fall, other services would scramble to improve their own in hopes to take the crown. I suppose we'll have to see how this plays out. Overall it sounds like a very stupid move on the part of RS, which might very well end up costing them dearly.
"Piracy" isn't about money but availability. A lot of the music I listen to isn't promoted commercially. I never would have discovered it if I hadn't sampled it first.
I agree with market dominance, however the up side to that was having only one file host worth paying. It will be interesting to see who the community settles on next - am I going to pay for premium to MediaFire, MegaUpload, Zshares, and all the others? They all require pay accounts for people who want to use managers, multiple files, ad-free and files of any size.
My hunch is MegaUpload will be the "winner" due to single click downloads. A person has to pay for that and the market will be dominated by one primary file host again.
RS isn't dumb. They must have reasons for downsizing this way and the only one I can think of is $. RS was targeted for court challenges because of their market-share and they knew it wouldn't stop. They lost in Germany, won twice in the US, but what country or organization would be next? This is costly and it's not justice.
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